Article January 6, 1912 Issue

THE LIGHT THAT NEVER FAILS

ROBERT NALL.

The advent of Christian Science into human consciousness is to the beginner like the parting of the ways. The night is past; the dawn appears. Light has come,—life, real and beautiful, because seen to be spiritual, is entered upon. This is the new birth, the unfoldment of truth to the hitherto darkened vision; and for a time there may be something like bewilderment. The light has revealed what seems to be a new world of thought and reality, It is well known that those who by means of the microscope and the telescope have once caught a glimpse of the wonderful secrets nature reveals, are amazed that so much exquisite form, so many entrancing designs, so much that is glorious and marvelous, should not have been known before. And the poet spoke truly when he wrote that he "who findeth out those secret things hath a fair right to gladness," for he has thus "awakened another note of praise on nature's harp to hymn her great creator." It is in this way that, as a great astronomer has said, "to the natural philosopher there is no natural object that is unimportant or trifling; from the least of nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons." What this means is not that the seeker has created anything, but that he has entered upon a discovery and that nature's laboratory with all its wonders is revealed to him; he is getting nearer the truth of things; and truth is always beautiful, because it is the reflection of God, who is infinite Truth.

But nowhere is the beauty of God's creation so clearly revealed as in the light of Christian Science; the spiritual universe, real and perfect, begins to appear, and is gradually unfolded to the consciousness of the searcher. It is this glimpse which gives such joy to the new student. He finds that the dark images of mortal thought are disappearing, that life is being transformed. That was a wonderful thought conveyed in the Urim and Thummim in the breastplate of the high priest. The thought of light and perfection as possible ideals was constantly kept before the people. We of today, in the fuller, deeper, more comprehensive, more spiritual conception of God and man which Christian Science has brought, are able to realize in a clearer and in a more practical way what this light and perfection stand for. Mrs. Eddy frequently speaks of light as a symbol of Truth and Love, and on page 508 of Science and Health she explains that "the third stage in the order of Christian Science is an important one to the human thought, letting in the light of spiritual understanding." On another page (305) she voices the revelation of human reflection: "Man, in the likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light of being, the invisible God."

What encouragement there is here! Darkness, the symbol of ignorance and discord and unsatisfied cravings, has no place in God's creation, and therefore is not in man; and the entity or power which is given it in human belief is pure illusion. What becomes, then, of all the hideous array of mortal specters that take the shape of sin, sickness, and death? The possibility of reducing these to their native nothingness is at once revealed. Thus the sufferer finds that his hope of relief is translated into a belief in its possibility, and then into fuller knowledge. He is lifted to a higher, purer plane of consciousness, where the mists of materiality are seen gradually to disperse.

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